Buss- Aims and Context

Since Darwin, there has been increasing interest in evolutionary psychology& the nature nurture debate. 'How much of human preference is due to nature?' and 'How much of this pattern of preference is common to all humans in all creatures?'

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What is the theory of evolutionary psychology?

The survival of society depends on people choosing suitable partners, who can produce healthy children who will survive to reproduce- something Buss wanted to study further.

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Who was Trivers (1972)?

He suggested that sexual preference is driven by the differing parental investments males and females make in their offspring. Female is 'extra choosy' cause she carries baby i.e. male=high status+resources so offspring can survive.

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What does it mean that we also choose a mate based on their reproductive value (Symons 1979)?

An 18 year old female has potential to have more children than a 28 year old. So males should seek younger females in order to conceive greater numbers of offspring- less important for females. Men seek fertility characteristics eg. hourglass figure.

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What were Buss' aims?

1)To find out if men and women look for different characteristics 2)Are gender specific preferences the same globally due to evolution? If so others died out. 3)Cross cultural study- a culture's religion, socioeconomic status and location affect mate